This month, we are exploring those who traverse worlds. We’re speaking with people who cross communal boundaries, and we’re learning from them about the many ways to think about Jewish community. The Jewish world has changed significantly in the past two years, with many of the traditional stories that keep us apart changing every day. We’re exploring this changing story, as part of our new topic on Jewish outreach.
In Being Wrong, Schulz explores what it means to be wrong, and why humans are so insistent on being right about everything. Schulz, a writer with the lucidity of a long-time journalist, argues that we learn to celebrate errors, and that we stop fearing being wrong in life.
In this cult classic of American Jewish writing, a Reform rabbi visits 9 (and a half) mystics, and learns about their way of life. Guided by curiosity, Weiner offers a rare look at storied legends of Jewish mysticism, asking them the questions that only an outsider to a community can ask, and demonstrating the value in the process of crossing the lines that sometimes keep communities apart.
The follow-up to Potok’s more famous The Chosen, in The Promise he explores the lines between communities with more depth. This novel offers a singular view of what happens when one leaves one religious community, whether it is Modern Orthodoxy, Conservative Judaism, or Hasidic Judaism, and how religious identity and communal identity are interwoven through and through.